Teenage sons watching football on holiday led to £11k iPad bill, Matheson tells MSPs

Scotland’s health secretary has apologised as he revealed how his teenage sons used his Holyrood-issued iPad to watch football matches while on holiday in Morocco – resulting in a bill of almost £11,000 in data roaming charges for the device.

Michael Matheson made a personal statement to MSPs a week after a row erupted about the charges.

He initially insisted he had been using the device for parliamentary work during the trip, which he went on with his wife and two sons shortly after Christmas last year.

But amid increasing demands to explain the data charges – which amounted to a total of £10,935.74 – Mr Matheson told MSPs that members of his family had “made use of the iPad’s data”.